The appeal of guns

Pinkos and pistols

It's no longer just Middle America that believes in defending itself

THINK of gun enthusiasts and you don't immediately think of the “polyamorous” and BDSM communities. (For the uninitiated, BDSM stands for “bondage, domination and sado-masochism”.) But that may be because you are the victim of outmoded prejudices—about gun ownership, that is, not about BDSM.

The Pink Pistols, an organisation of homosexual gun enthusiasts, boasts some 2,000 members, with chapters across the country. The group introduces new shooters to the sport and endorses candidates who support both the Second Amendment and “the rights of consenting adults to love each other how they wish however they wish”. Its slogans include “armed gays don't get bashed” and “pick on someone your own calibre”.

This is only one example of the gun culture's onward march into liberal (in the American sense of the word) territory. The trailblazer was arguably Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership, which was founded in 1989 to promote gun-ownership among one of the most leftish ethnic groups: it now has about 8,000 members. The Tenth Cavalry Gun Club, named after a black regiment, tries to “increase the numbers of people of colour in the firearms world”.

The Harvard Law School is arguably the command centre of American liberalism. But the school's gun club boasts some 120 members, 5% of the student body. Alexander Volokh, who founded the club late last year, takes members shooting on a range in New Hampshire. Guns are banned on the Harvard campus; the New Hampshire range displays a sign saying “Children under 13 shoot for free.” Mr Volokh plans to hold a wide range of gun-themed events on campus, including screenings of films which feature “regular people using guns as a force for good”. Another student wrote an article in the Harvard Law Record entitled “Discovering the Joy of a Semi-Automatic”.

Mount Holyoke, an all-women's college more readily associated with Betty Friedan than with Charlton Heston, has now formed the first college chapter of the Second Amendment Sisters, a national organisation of pro-gun women. About 50 women have signed up. There is even a gun club in an art school, the Maryland Institute College of Art. Justin Sirois, the club's founder, describes it as a “work of art” and argues that it disproves the “sissy” stereotype of art students. “There have been hundreds of respectable people who love the art of marksmanship and just downright blowing things apart,” says the club's website, which features photographs of William Burroughs and Hunter S. Thompson brandishing weapons.

Why is enthusiasm for guns spreading from the heartland, from the America that voted for Bush to the America that voted for Gore? One obvious reason is September 11th, which heightened people's sense of vulnerability and underlined the importance of self-reliance. The people who prevented Flight 93 from slamming into Washington were ordinary citizens who took the law into their own hands.

But Osama bin Laden emphasised trends that were already there. Mr Volokh points out that enthusiasm for guns is a form of counter-cultural rebellion, rather like smoking cigars. What better way can there be to tweak the tails of the leftish types who run universities than to worship at the same shrine as Dirty Harry, or to join a group called the Armed Pagans?

Groups like the Pink Pistols and the Second Amendment Sisters also emphasise something else—empowerment. Guns are making it easier for women (most of whom are physically weaker than men) and for homosexuals (who are often the victims of unprovoked assaults) to defend themselves. John Lott, of the American Enterprise Institute, points out that women are more likely to escape unharmed from an assault if they have a gun. Doug Krick, the founder of the Pink Pistols' Boston chapter, says he knows of several homosexuals and trans-sexuals who have saved themselves from attack by showing guns.

The idea that empowerment grows from the barrel of a gun is a commonplace in the American heartland. Now it is starting to be heard in the other America.